Shirt-dampening machine.



No. 774,875. PATENTED NOV. 15, 1904. A. M. 8: J. E. HALSTEAD.

SHIRT DAMPENING MACHINE.

APPLIUATION FILED SEPT. 30. 1903. N0 MODEL.

i Hdiizyzsscs lgacgfoms, @M 2 I v @AUOQJS UNIT D STATES ALBERT M. HALSTEAD Patented November 15, 1904.

PATENT OFFICE.

SHlRT-DAMPENING MACHINE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 774,875, dated. November 15, 1904.

Application filed September 30, 1903. Serial No. 175,210. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that we, ALBERT M. HALSTEAD and JOSEPH E. HALSTEAD, citizens of the United States, residing at Jamestown, in the county of Stutsman and State of North Dakota, have invented a new and useful Shirt- Dampening Machine, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to devices employed in laundries for dampening garments of various kinds preparatory to ironing, and has for its object to produce a device of this character simple in construction and easily and quickly operated, whereby any desired portion of agarment may be dampened or immersed in water or other liquid and wrungto expel the surplus liquid without affecting the remainder of the garment; and the invention consists in certain novel features of construction, as hereinafter shown and described, and specified in the claim.

In the drawings illustrative of theinvention, in which corresponding parts are denoted by like designating characters, Figure 1 is a longitudinal sectional elevation, and Fig. 2 is a plan view, of the apparatus.

In laundry-work it is frequently necessary to immerse a portion only of a garment in water or other liquid and wring the immersed portion to expel the surplus liquidas, for instance, in dampening shirts and similar garments-wherein the lower portion only-of the garment is immersed in-the water, the irnmersed portion wrung out and the garment folded with the dry portion upon the wet portion, and the garments thus treated arranged in layers and left in that position until the moisture thoroughly and uniformly permeates the whole mass. To thus immerse portions of a garment and expeditiously wring the surplus water from the immersed portion is the object of the present invention. The machine comprises a tank of any desired size and of any suitable material for holding the water and will preferably be mounted upon supporting-legs 11 to bring it to a convenient height. Mounted for rotation over the open upper side of the tank, preferably near one end, as by bearings 12 13, is a shaft 14, carrying a roller 15, gears 16 17, and a drivingpull'ey 18, as shown, the drive-pulley providing for the forcible rotation of the shaft and its attachments, as by a belt from a driveshaft. (Not shown.) Attached to the upper edges of the tank are guide-strips 20 21, in

which a shaft 22 is rotatively supported and likewise for movement toward and away from the shaft 14 and roller 15. The shaft 22 carries a roller 23 and gears 2 125, the roller corresponding to the roller 15 and the gears 24 25 for engagement with the gears 16 17 when the shaft and its attachments are moved to a position adjacent to the shaft 1 1. It will be noted that the gears are disposed outside of the bearings 12 13 and of the strips 20 21, so that the garments will not come in contact with them, while the gears 24 25 also serve in addition as guiding means to prevent end movement of the roller 23.

The shaft 22 is provided with means for yieldably supporting it in its withdrawn position or with the roller 23 spaced from the .roller 15, as in full lines in Fig. 1, and also provided with means for forcibly moving the shaft 22 longitudinally of the tank and beneath the guide-strips 2O 21 to bring the roller 23 into operative position relative to the roller 15 and with the gears intermeshing, as in dotted lines inFig. 1. The mechanism employed for thus moving the shaft 22 and its attachments consists of lever-arms 26 27, pivotally connected at 28 29 to the tank 10 and connected at their upper ends to the shaft 22 by links 30 31 and provided at their lower ends with a foot-treadle 32. A spring 33 is connected to the treadle'or otherwise disposed to maintain the lever arms and connected roller 23 yieldably in their withdrawn or rearward position, so that the roller 23 will remain spaced from the roller 15 when not in use, as in full lines in Fig. 1. By this means the parts are maintained normally in position to permit the insertion of the portions of the garment to be immersed between the rollers without interference therefrom, and then when ready to he wrung the simple depression of the treadle will move the supplemental-roller into position to compress the garment against the revolving roller and at the same time engage the gear-wheels, and thus positively rotate both rollers in opposite directions and thoroughly wring the immersed garment and expel it from the machine, the surplus liquid running back into the tank. The pressure,it will be obvious, can be easily controlled by the force applied to the treadle, and thus regulate the device to the size and form of the garment. The rollers thus serve as wringing means to expel the surplus liquid and likewise as means for ejecting the garment when the immersing process is completed.

The device is very simple in construction, easily operated, and is very efl'ective for the purposes described, and by its use a material saving of time and labor is elfected.

Having thus described our invention, What we claim is- The combination with a tank, of a pair of rollers each having cog-wheels disposed on the of the frame of the machine and operating normally to hold the rollers separated.

In testimony that We claim the foregoing as our own We have hereto affixed our signatures in the presence of two Witnesses.

ALBERT M. HALSTEAD. JOSEPH E. HALSTEAD.

itnesses:

J. GRAFTON CoUcH, Ur. G. HELMER. 

